Jeb Wright of Classic Rock Revisited recently interviewed Andy Powell of WISHBONE ASH about the band's new album, Elegant Stealth. An excerpt follows:

Jeb: It is not a throwback to the old sound but, Andy, there is a lot, and I mean a lot, of guitar solos.

Andy: On this one, we’ve paid attention to what the fans are saying. We are a live act and we open up in a live arena and we extend things a bit. We decided that we should do that on the record as well. We let it roll; there is nothing too contrived with the guitar solos, it is from the hip.

Jeb: Let’s talk about some of the new songs. I really enjoy 'Reason To Believe'. You have the twin leads on there that I never get tired of hearing.

Andy: I wouldn’t be still doing this if it didn’t still excite me. When we first hit upon the twin lead thing it was instant ear candy and it has remained that way. We try to vary the ways we use it. Sometimes we integrate the harmony deeper within the structure of the songs than we used to when we first started out; it is a little more sophisticated.

A couple of years ago, we started some writing sessions in an old manor house in Normandy, France. We videoed the actual writing sessions like a fly on the wall type of thing.

Jeb: Are you talking about the DVD?

Andy: Yes, I am glad you’ve seen it. You can see that 'Reason To Believe' started out as a bit of a jam on the DVD. Bob Skeat, our bass player, who is not a person who has come up with many lyrics for the band, although he is an integral part of the writing process, came up with that line, 'Reason To Believe'. To me, that sums up who we are as a band. We play all over the place and it takes a lot of faith to do this. That statement sums it all up for us. A dear friend of mine, Ian Harris, wrote the lyrics. It is a really good opener for the album, as it is very upbeat.

To read the interview in its entirety, click here.